Hello everyone,

I am eighteen years old. This past summer I was at a party and I was exposed to cocaine for the first time; having always wanted to learn what one feels like on cocaine, I used some.

I had completely forgotten that the next morning I had a doctor appointment for school immunization forms, as it was to be my first year of university.

I remembered this when I was crashing (and thus feeling paranoid) and began to feel immeasurably anxious. I couldn't think straight enough to skip the appointment because I was worried, of all things, about both being charged for the visit and being embarrassed in front of the physician. I began drinking a lot of juice and water even though I logically knew there would be no urine test and if there was the doctor would not check for drugs. At the check-up I demonstrated, of course, high-blood pressure (enough for the nurse to remark about it). When my physician was asking me the standard questions I felt as though I were being interrogated, and when he asked me about drug use I froze, asked him if it was completely confidential-he said it indeed was, and told him what had happened.

At the time I was afraid my parents would find out, having just become independent (at age 18) fiscally, and the doctor assured me they wouldn't find out, but that he did have to add this information to my medical records. He did say he saw no point in taking a urine sample because I had been honest with him and "the tests would show what we both know they would show". Does that mean something less on my records?

Lately I have been trying to learn more about medical records and see that I was wrong indeed in assuming my doctor and I would be the only souls to know what I had told him.

I am worried about what effects this will have on my future (employment, etc).

I have asked around on the internet and received no answers or very, very vague answers.

So my question to you is: how will this effect me in the future? I really want to know as much as possible; how will it affect insurance rates and employment, and who will have access to this information? Will employers be able to see it when doing background checks? Who can look at it at any given time?

Thank you so so so much for any answers you might be able to give me.

All the best

Your medical records are confidential period. Teachers, future employers are not allowed to see them nor is anyone without your consent. I doubt the doctor wrote any great long notation regarding your lapse of judgment...just noted what you told him and that's that. Too bad you felt you had to confess but you did and that is that....however, it will not affect your future so stop the worry. The only thing that might jeopardize your future is your own mouth...keep it shut. Just keep this experience in mind next time you feel you need to experience something illegal.

Dear Ms. Ann D,

Thank you very much for your response, I really appreciate it. Of course I am not a blabber, what happened was I was still affected by the drug's psychedelic properties and that's why I was such a bigmouth :(

I know how juvenile that post must sound and I hope it didn't cause a great offense by posting it on this forum. I actually posted this in three forums (not knowing which was the correct one) so I'll also offer my apologies to the moderators, who had to delete the other two. The reason I did that was that I was having a lot of anxiety over this and was eager to obtain an answer.

That really does reassure me. Is there anything else you can tell me then? For example, who has them and why are they even kept if nobody other than my doctor and myself looks at them? The reason I ask is that I read some things on the net about employers being able to obtain access to them, but I wasn't able to get a clear understanding of everything. The government, just asking out of curiosity would be able to see this information, right? Because I know that if one wants to work for the department of justi ce or intelligence or whatnot that would make it impossible; not that I want to do any of those things in the future, but it just piques my interest as to who has access to my information.

thanks a lot
take care :)

OP....I think, you're okay. I know someone that was in similar cases as you. Oh, he even got arrested.

Long story short......he's employed in a big company and have health insurance through them.

Best of Luck.........BTW, you're okay.